Solution to school funding still uncertain

Posted by Bruce Dammeier45sc on January 20, 2016

"In the McCleary school-funding case, the court ruled in 2012 that the state is shirking its constitutional duty to cover basic education costs, and must correct the funding problems by 2018. The state is now in contempt of court over lawmakers’ failure to deliver a plan to meet the 2018 funding deadline, with the court imposing sanctions of $100,000 a day.

Yet the plan floated this month by a bipartisan group of lawmakers doesn’t propose how the state should take on the cost of school employee salaries that are being borne unconstitutionally by local school districts, the biggest remaining part of the McCleary decision.

Instead, the bill would create a new task force and hire a consultant to gather more data about the problem, while committing to fixing it all next year."